It’s been a rather eventful week for Mr Head, Ms Williams and sixteen keen and enthusiastic students from West Island School, Hong Kong who have just enjoyed five days at Tasikoki Wildlife Rescue Centre.
West Island School accomplished a great deal in a short space of time at Tasikoki. Their week started with an introductory session into the local biodiversity, learning about the challenges and the impact of the illegal wildlife trade whilst raising awareness of Indonesia’s deforestation issues and the importance of protecting the remaining habitat to prevent further extinction.
Onsite activities for the week included a large scale beach clean up, bug hunting, foraging and creating enrichments for the animals at the rescue centre. Cooking classes to make local, palm oil free, sweet treats and a Permaculture project whereby the students helped to establish a food garden around the lodge.
Learning also continued away from Tasikoki with a day trip to Bunaken, one of the best dive sites in the world, to snorkel above an extremely rich and bio-diverse coral reef. Followed by a second day trip to Tomohon to learn all about the amazing Arenga Pinnata, a mixed forest palm which produces more than 60 products. West Island School witnessed how the juice is extracted from the Arenga palm in the forest and then turned into a delicious sugar, by hand, at the local Masarang Sugar Factory. The tour continued with a hike to the top of a local volcano followed by a trip to Rurukan to experience the local and very cultural warrior dance. Before the week came to a close, West Island School also had the chance to visit a local school to share their musical skills and learn more about the local culture, a very fun and popular excursion.
The Management, staff and volunteers at Tasikoki would like to send a sincere thank you to West Island School for their continued support and donations. Their generous donations were greatly received by the animals and staff at Tasikoki. We hope that you all had a truly inspirational experience at Tasikoki and look forward to greeting you again next year.
